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So, I was finally updating my Book List for 2016 when I happened to click on my list for 2015 (I wanted to see if I made a note or anything at the end of the year) and guess what? It was blank. BLANK! The same with 2014! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!

A couple weeks ago, I was trying to work on updating my blog, since I’ve been pretty bad about that lately, and I was trying to figure out how to properly get the Book Lists tab in he right order. I did manage to finally figure it out, but it looks like in my attempts in doing so, I deleted those 2 lists. I am so bummed. DANG IT!

So, I’m thinking of deleting those 2 threads since I have no way of knowing what and when I read in those 2 years. But, I am afraid in trying to figure that out that I may end up damaging the 2016 list, so, I will likely just leave them blank for now.

That was the only thing I managed to get updated (even though it looks like I royally messed up though) because the sidebar has changed. I wanted to take off my countdown widget and change the header pic but haven;’t a clue in how to do that now. So, for now, this page will look very un-updated, except for the new posts I do.

In which, I promise to be more active. I need to clean this blog up a bit. And I’m not sure what to blog about. I had such high hopes for last year, and I managed for a little bit, and then it all went downhill (my work life changed drastically for the year last year and the summer months were very harsh – so THAT all didn’t help).

I recently finished reading Salem’s Cipher and it was SOOOO good. And I’m not just saying that because Jess Lourey is one of my favorite authors and everything Jess writes is pretty much gold to me. This one took me awhile to finish, I started in December and just finished last week. Now, that isn’t to say that this book was hard to read or hard to get into, that is simply not the case, I just don’t have as much free time to read as I had couple years back, and I wanted to take my time with this one.

This book is such a thrilling game of cat and mouse full of history (think Da Vinci Code or National Treasure) and even some self-discovery and overcoming your fears.

The blurb:

A troubled codebreaker faces an epic plot reaching back through centuries of America’s secret history

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst, courted by the world’s top security agencies ever since making a breakthrough discovery in her field of quantum computing. She’s also an agoraphobe, shackled to a narrow routine by her fear of public places. When her mother’s disappearance is linked to a plot to assassinate the country’s first viable female presidential candidate, Salem finds herself both target and detective in a modern-day witch hunt. Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and centuries-old codes tucked inside the Beale Cipher, Salem begins to uncover the truth: an ancient and ruthless group is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of women stands in its way.

I HIGHLY recommend Salem’s Cipher to anyone who likes mysteries, action-packed thrillers, or just books, period!

I was first introduced to Nick Cutter back in 2014 with his novel The Troop, which, not only scared, but disgusted the hell out of me. You need to read it. I do have the following novel, The Deep, but haven’t had a chance to dive into it yet!

The blurb:

From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and Stephen King’s It, in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous. Stirrings in the woods and over the treetops—the brooding shape of a monolith known as the Black Rock casts its terrible pall. Paranoia and distrust grips the settlement. The escape routes are gradually cut off as events spiral towards madness. Hell—or the closest thing to it—invades Little Heaven. The remaining occupants are forced to take a stand and fight back, but whatever has cast its dark eye on Little Heaven is now marshaling its powers…and it wants them all.

Fifteen years ago, in order to win a contract in the Kingdom, a desperate defense contractor used a shell company to provide a bribe to a wealthy Saudi businessman. Now a powerful player in the defense industry, he panics when the Panama Papers burst onto the public scene. Providing insight into the illicit deeds of offshore financing, they could prove his undoing.

To prevent the exposure of his illegal activities, he sets in motion a plan to interdict the next leak, but he is not the only one worried about spilled secrets. The data theft has left the Taskforce potentially vulnerable, leaving a trail that could compromise the unit. Back in the good graces of the new president, Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are ordered to interdict the next leak as well, in order to control the damage.

Unbeknownst to either group, the Saudi has been using the shell company to fund terrorists all over the world, and he has a spectacular attack planned, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11. The information Pike and Jennifer uncover will put them on the trail of the imminent threat, but it’s one that they might be unable to stop.

Called Ring of Fire, it will cause unimaginable destruction across the United States, and the ensuing chaos and terror will distract the Taskforce from a truth no one sees: Ring of Fire was only the beginning, and the danger is far from over.

Full of twists and turns, Everything You Want Me to Be reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront…and she inches closer and closer to her death.

High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a family friend of the Hoffmans, vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view—Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling—Everything You Want Me to Be weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.

Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?

I had such a hard time putting this book down because I just wanted … needed to know what happened. I came pretty close in figuring it out, but the conclusion still flipped me through a loop. Another reason I really loved this one, it takes place in Minnesota!!

I’ve been a fan of Amanda Hocking’s for several years now. I discovered her My Blood Approves series, in which she successfully self-published, and feel in love with her work.

The blurb:

Mara has become used to the extraordinary. Roaming from place to place with Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Carnival, she longs for an ordinary life where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future.

She gets her chance when the struggling sideshow sets up camp in the small town of Caudry, and she meets a gorgeous local guy named Gabe. But before long, Mara realizes there’s a dark presence lurking in the town that’s threatening the lives of her friends. She has seven days to take control of a power she didn’t know she had in order to save everyone she cares about―and change the future forever.